The New Democratic Project — without Jack

Lee Berthiaume, Postmedia News08.23.2011

The death of Jack Layton's death raises questions whether a new leader will continue to work with Layton's team and follow this path of apparent success, or change tracks to put his or her own stamp on the New Democrats.

OTTAWA — For the past nine years, Jack Layton and his team of advisers worked to modernize the NDP.

When the party became the official Opposition on May 2, it was seen as a clear sign the NDP was on the right track.

Layton's death on Monday, however, has raised questions over whether a new leader will continue to work with Layton's team and follow this path of apparent success, or change tracks to put his or her own stamp on the New Democrats.

Party insiders call this modernization effort "the Project" and it can be traced to NDP national director Brad Lavigne. In 2000, Lavigne worked for Paul Ramsey, who was British Columbia's finance minister, but took time off during that year's federal election campaign to work in then-NDP leader Alexa McDonough's war room.

"It was frustrating because every day in the campaign, we were observers to our own election campaign," Lavigne told Postmedia News on Tuesday. "We were spectators to the election campaign. We were not participants."

When McDonough indicated she was planning to step down, Lavigne and a friend decided to scour Canada for a leader they could endorse. There were two criteria: the person had to be bilingual so the NDP could move into Quebec; and the person had to come from an urban centre. Layton fit both categories.

On Jan. 25, 2003, Layton won the leadership contest on the first ballot, taking 53.5 per cent of the vote. That's when he, Lavigne and the other key members of the team, which eventually came to include party president Brian Topp, chief of staff Anne McGrath and Quebec adviser Raymond Guardia, began to take the next step.

"The goal was to modernize the party in virtually all its aspects," Lavigne said. A permanent campaign team was established while improved communications, fundraising and outreach were prioritized. An effort also was made to change the NDP's culture — including abandonning some of the party's more radical positions.

While the party was changing behind the scenes, success was coming on the national stage. In the 2004 federal election, Layton introduced himself to Canadians. In the 2006 race, the party increased its seat total to 29, from 19. In 2007, Thomas Mulcair became only the second federal New Democrat to be elected in Quebec, and the first since 1990. And in the 2008 federal election, Layton declared he was running for prime minister: the party went on to take 37 seats, its best showing since 1988. Then came the breakthrough in May.

All along the way, Layton and his team worked side by side, with the inner circle largely untouched.

"They're the only political team who have been together as long as they have," said former NDP press secretary Ian Capstick. "They're a family."

In his final letter to Canadians, Layton asked his NDP supporters to "demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government."

Lavigne said it's difficult to quantify how much of the Project's success was attributable to Layton and how much to the advisers around him. However, he has no doubt it will remain under a new leader.

"The Project continues despite Jack's passing," Lavigne said. "The discussion will be about how we continue it, not about whether we continue it. That will be the discussion we have over the next few weeks and months."

David McGrane, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan who has been studying the NDP, said a new leader has many factors to juggle in deciding on advisers and priorities.

"New leaders want to put a stamp on their party when they go in," he said, "and there's leadership debts to be paid. Every time you become leader, there's people behind you who got you there, so a new leader would be tempted to bring in some of their new people."

At the same time, McGrane said there will be senior NDP staff who, having worked so hard and for so long to get the party to this point, will resist changing the course.

"They believe in their heart of hearts that the dream of becoming a federal government for the NDP is closer than it's ever been before," he said. "They're not going to want to abandon their posts at this point in time. So the new leader is going to have to account for that, too."

He said whoever becomes the new leader would be well-advised to keep most of Layton's team intact and supplement with the influx of new talent that has arrived with the party's May 2 electoral success.

"It's like a sports team," he said. "Sometimes you can bring in some new players and make the team even better. Or sometimes you can bring in some new talent and team sort of implodes. It depends on which happens."

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